"Magic Cake" strait from FB

Hi!

Hrm, so obviously I shouldn't promise any date for next time...
I am really sorry so I'll try not to make any promises I can't keep.

So whats new?
Well, winter has arrived at the island, it's cold, snowy and slippery in other words not fun! So I've been overdosing on tea, probably 5-9 teacups a day...

 The following recipe is one I saw one day on facebook and immediately thought this is a cake for me. All the ingredients in one bowl no fuss just whisk together and pour into a mould and what you get is a three layer cake with custard in the middle!

Three layer cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C

In a bowl combine:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
4 eggs
3 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla

Whisk until blended and then pour into a buttered spring pan and bake in the lower part of the oven for about 1 hour.
Let cool and serve either hot or cold.
That's it! But don't expect a miracle it's a good cake but not a sensation. 

2014 a new year

Hi, sorry that we've forgotten about you...
A lot has happend in the 3 years since the last post, I have a new appartment (my very own), Herbert has a new job but still lives up north in the cold.
Since I now live alone I don't bake nearly as much as I used to but I got an idea,  hopefully Wrinklemuffin will agree to this and she and I will start to bake and post..
I know this much; I'm gonna bake tomorrow and post about it!

Might be that there's going to be more recipes on drinks and the likes, I now have a life ;)
So I wish you a prosperous new year and talk to you tomorrow!

Daifukumochi and pastries from France

So as you might have guessed the daifuku experiment didn't go very well, I actually tried two different kinds but none of them were what I thought they would be.

The recipe (if you'll want to try your luck) is from a Swedish food magazine called Gourmet

Daifukumochi filled with ice cream

The original recipe includes an ice cream recipe but I used bought ice cream instead.
This dough is prepared in an microwave oven
You'll need;
2 1/2 dl glutinous rice flour
1 3/4 dl water
1/2 dl caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar or 1/2 of a vanilla bean
2 tbsp Maizena (cornstarch)

Mix together flour and water in a glass bowl, ad sugar and vanilla. Cover with clingfilm and nuke for 2 minutes, stir and then put the film back on and nuke for another 30 seconds.
Take of the clingfilm from the bowl, cover a chopping-board with clingfilm and dust it with half of the maizena.

Turn the dough in maizena and let it cool on the chopping-board, turnover after half an hour. Put the dough in a plastic bag and rest in the fridge for 1/2-1 hour until it has a good consistency for rolling out.

Divide the dough into 10 pieces and roll out each pieces to a circle. Take out one piece of ice cream at the time and bake into the dough and put it in the freezer.

When eating this version of the daifuku it reminded me of eating frozen chalk. The other version I divided the recipe and exchanged some of the water with cherry liqueur, instead of using ice cream I filled them with a vanilla custard/cream and fresh plums and instead of freezing them I steamed them for about 15-30 minutes. But that wasn't really good either, better but not good.

I've been trying to figure out what went wrong and I believe it's a combination of things; first I'm not sure I had the right flour, second the recipe isn't so good I had to read in a Japanese cookbook to find out how thick the dough should be and thirdly my microwave is getting old and has been declining...


Lolcats and funny pictures,

On another note, my mother was recently in France and brought home some french pastries so I have finally had the opportunity to try real macarons and madeleine-cakes. They were all really good and with a cup of tea I was in heaven, unfortunately I don't have any recipes to them but I do have pictures.



These last few months have not been so good for me or Herbert, I've failed with most (if not all) things I've tried to bake and Herbert has had a lot to do with school and spring is never a good time for us. But I promise you I'll be better from now on I already have new ideas for projects. Until then

No satisfaction

I can't get no, I can't get no satisfaction, cause I try and I try and I try
As of lately all my baking has gone wrong not one single thing I've tried has come out with success, this is the reason for my nonexistent posting...

You might think it's a lame excuse but there really hasn't been anything worth your time, today however I'm attempting to make mochi a dessert from Japan and no matter what the outcome will be I promise to post about it, so later today you'll know if I managed to brake the curse of pastries.

Until tonight, have a great day everyone!

chocolate cake (again)

this is a pimped up version of a recipe i did last year: a simple chocolate cake. but this time i added brown sugar and coconut shavings. yum!! (also added some baking powder which made it more fluffy*)

chocolate-cake
oven: 200 degrees celcius

2 eggs
 2dl granulated sugar
1 dl brown sugar
1 tsp vanillasugar
1 tsp bakingpowder
4 tblsp cocoapowder
1,5 dl flour (not self-raising)
2 tbsp coconut shavings
1 dl melted butter or margarine
coconut shavings for "lining" the pan

grease and cover a spring pan, about 24 cm or smaller, with coconut shavings.
mix the ingredients, by stirring, not whisking. (i add the butter last so it'll cool down and to avoid making an unplanned omelette)

pour into the pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. when the cake has come of the edges of the pan, it's done. and like the original- wonderful to serve still warm with vanilla ice-cream!

*

(ok, so maybe not THAT fluffy, but still...)

whole wide world

 ever seen that movie "stranger than fiction"? did you get a sudden urge to get a small bakery, a half-sleeve tattoo and bake chocolat chip cookies everyday? me too... so i made cookies. the rest will have to wait.
 the recipe is originally from a swedish book called "tillfällen att njuta en smula" (terese wikström) which i can recommend to all swedes. really beautiful book. anyway, bake this to either the soundtrack of aforementioned film or edith piaf. works either. i added lemon-zest and i think some coarsely chopped almonds would not have been bad..

chocolate chip cookies
makes 12-30 depending on size

2 eggs
200 g butter/margarine
3 dl flour
6 dl rolled oats
4 dl brown sugar
4 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking soda 
200 g dark chocolate
pinch of salt
the zest of half a lemon

mix all the dry ingredients together. melt the butter and add that and the eggs and stir into a batter. roll little (or big) balls and place on a baking parchment, not to close since they float out. bake for about 8-15 minutes depending on size. my middle-sized ones took about 13 so if they don't look done leave them for a minute or so.. when they've floated out and set on the surface they're done. let the cookies cool on the baking sheet before moving them onto a rack to cool completely.

foux du fafa

right before christmas i decided to face my great and highly irrational fear of fruits (don't judge). tangerines are ok, but not berries (also in jam) or any other fruit. but, like i said, i decided to man up and make: appleclafoutis. lc made clafoutis with prunes (which i didn't taste at the time. prunes=fruit) and she gave the hard verdict that it tasted like pancakes- in a bad way. so i made mine with some season-appropriate spices. this is a straight-forward recepie, and with things you have at home. so- my version? did i dare? yessir. i did. but some of the applepices were still crisp so i couldn't eat those but it was nice and had some pancake similarity but not overwhelming. also custard. see lc's custard-school.

Apple- clafoutis
oven 175 degrees
serves at least 4

25 g butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 dl caster sugar
1 dl wheatflour
1 dl milk
two-three small apples
about 2 dl blueberries
spices: a pinch of salt, 1 tsp each of cinnamon and cardamom

Butter and bread a pan about 24 cm in diam. Melt the butter, then put aside to cool. Whisk eggs, sugar, flour, milk and spices together in a bowl. Add the butter. Spread the fruit evenly in the pan, pour over the batter, bake for 30-40 minutes until it's golden and has set.
serve luke warm. with custard. nom nom.
(yeah, i know the pics not that great but it i'm but a mediocre photographer)